Wednesday January 18 Epiphany 2
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Psalm 38
I have caused my own downfall, people take advantage of me, and even friends have abandoned me. I remain silent because there is nothing left to do but to hope in God. Help me, God!
Isaiah 44: 24—45: 7 What’s Isaiah about?
God, who created the world, can easily take the conqueror Cyrus by the hand, turn him into a shepherd, and guide him to return the people back to Jerusalem. It is God who has given the godless Cyrus his world power and who even gives him his name. This was an astonishing re-interpretation of history by Isaiah, and challenges us to imagine how it might be true in our time.
Mark 4: 1-20 What’s Mark about?
Jesus’ famous parable about the sower and the seeds. Originally Jesus probably meant to use an obvious common experience (wonderful harvests happen even though most of the seeds which are planted never grow) to say that no matter how much opposition his followers, or the kingdom, encounters, God’s generous plenty in the form of the emerging kingdom overcomes every setback. It is a very effective image. The subsequent explanation that each example has some special meaning was probably added later by an early Christian dealing with the puzzle of why some disciples were abandoning the faith. So Jesus’ examples of overcoming opposition to the kingdom were re-interpreted as illustrations of what drew people away from their early faith.
This week’s collect:
Almighty God,
your Son our Saviour Jesus Christ
is the light of the world.
May your people,
illumined by your word and sacraments,
shine with the radiance of his glory,
that he may be known, worshipped, and obeyed
to the ends of the earth;
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.
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